Friday, 24 June 2016

On the Stupidity of David Cameron

(NSFW language below the fold. If it was ever called for, now is the time.)

We've fucking well gone and done it. The UK has voted to leave the EU. If I believed in any gods, I would ask them to have mercy on us all. As I've made clear before, I believe the consequences will be somewhere between bruising and catastrophic, with little or no upside.

As HL Mencken observed, democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. We are about to see that principle in action.

I am displeased with the Labour Party this morning, in particular with Jeremy Corbyn and his inept defence of EU membership. Labour needed a strong communicator, a tub-thumping orator who could grab the attention of voters outside a narrow left-wing circle. Needless to say, it didn't fucking have one.

Among other things, Corbyn bought into a myth from Scotland, which says the voters told Scottish Labour to get fucked because they shared a platform with the Tories during the indyref. While this may have been a minor contributing factor, Scottish Labour were shitcanned largely because they were a pack of complacent nincompoops. For a competent politician like Sadiq Khan, sharing a platform with the Tories does no evident harm. Instead of putting aside party differences to campaign on an issue of national importance, Corbyn was largely missing in action.

However, all of this pales in comparison to my anger with David Cameron, our soon-to-be former Prime Minister. Not looking very fucking clever now, are you Dave?

What the fuck did you expect, you arrogant cockweasel? For the last six years, you have led a government which industriously fucked over the poor and disabled. Your slogan of the Big Society immediately became a sick joke.

Hey, I get it. You're a Tory, so of course you are generous to business and harsh to the poor. That's what you do. I might as well complain about my cat trying to catch mice. Cruelty is par for the course, what disappoints me is your stupidity.

Times are tough. We're emerging from the aftereffects of the worst financial crisis in living memory. Instead of trying to make things better, you gleefully shat all over the poor and vulnerable from a great height. Then you affixed a large "Kick Me" sign to your arse and fucking well bent over. What in the name of Thor's sweaty bollocks were you thinking?

Along the way, you provided an opening for the Leave campaign to unleash racism and hatred, like a flood of poison in our collective veins. Thanks a fucking lot, Dave. The consequences will be with us for a long time. They won't bite white straight posh Englishmen like yourself, but some of the rest of us are not so lucky. Already, a good and brave woman named Jo Cox has died because of the rise of the far right, and I fear that may be only the beginning.

Too late now, you understand what you've done, you fucking disgrace. You are going to be remembered as a miserable failure; the worst Prime Minister since Anthony Eden, maybe since Neville Chamberlain. It's entirely possible that because of your idiotic gamble, Scotland and Northern Ireland will leave the UK; the European Union itself will collapse; and the economy and politics of the UK, and maybe a lot of other places, will be fucked for generations to come.

(The worst Prime Minister so far, that is. After a few years of Boris Johnson and his successors, it's anyone's guess as to whether Britain will more closely resemble 28 Days Later or V for Vendetta.)

Unfortunately the only injury is to your pride. You can fuck off to leafy Oxfordshire and enjoy a comfortable retirement. It's the rest of us who will have to endure the consequences of your egregious fuckery.

Endure we shall. Make no mistake about that. I still believe Britain is a strong, kind, and capable nation. I hope we will take a good hard look at ourselves, and resolve to build a better country. But right here and now, I can't help fearing the worst.

On selfish grounds, I am deeply grateful I have a Canadian passport. I can get the hell out if the shit hits the fan. I hope it won't come to that, but I'm thinking about what will happen if it does.

A lot of people casually toss around the idea of moving to another country. I've actually done it, and seen my wife go through it again. It's an expensive, difficult, wrenching process, even if you have the legal right to settle in another country (which I do, but most British people do not).

I meant what I said yesterday: I am happy making my home in Britain, and raising my son here. I am British as well as Canadian. But I have to do what's best for my family, and if that means starting a new life across the ocean, that is what I will do.

In conclusion: Fuck you, David Cameron, for making me so afraid for this land I love that I would even consider leaving it.